I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to optical fiber positioners as well as a method for making the same.
II. Description of Related Art
There are many previously known optical fiber positioners. Such optical fiber positioners are used, for example, in optical scanners as well as other applications.
One such application for an optical fiber positioner is for use in free space laser transmissions which use the fiber optic for delivering the laser radiation into free space from the distal end of the delivery fiber. One requirement of an optical fiber positioner for use with laser transmissions in free space, however, is that the position of the optic fiber be precisely controlled.
For example, axial displacement of the optic fiber should be in the range of a fraction of a micron in order to obtain useful transmissions into free space. Furthermore, frequency bandwidth for the fiber tip displacement should be in the range of hundreds or even thousands of hertz for keeping the spot on the target or receiver effectively mitigating the wandering of beams for lower bandwidths.
Fiber optic collimators with fast displacement of the emitting tips can be combined into densely packed arrays. The direction of each beam can be controlled independently thus providing adaptive capability without additional expensive elements such as deformable mirrors and the like. However, the dense packing of such collimators into such arrays requires very high accuracy for the position of the optical fiber tips as well as high speed accuracy of movement of the fiber tips for reliable overlapping of all of the collimation beams onto the target.
Although there have been previously known optical fiber positioners for use with laser communications in free space, none of them have been able to obtain reliable large bandwidth communications.